I have the best job in my career and I was hired from responding to a who's hiring thread. wish I could give more details, but any single data point about the firm yields who it is.

generally, the company was looking for a very unique form of talent driven by a certain attitude and experience. they developed tools for verifying and filtering for it. if you've read any william gibson novels the firm would fit right into something he would describe.

if I were to characterize it, I'd say someone who has been any one of a FOSS contributor, bootstrapped founder, hacker, competitor especially elite level or minor fame in anything, autodidact, amateurist, performing artist, among other high competence bars that demonstrate tacit knowledge, focus, clarity, humility, reflexive curiosity, and related qualities, then imagine a firm that had somehow managed to quietly collect scores of them.

HN seems to attract a cluster of those people.